Title says it all, I can't for the life of me figure out how to beat lance fleets. No matter if i try to stay at range or brawl im just getting wreck as SM. I try focusing their weapons but to no avail. Should I just ram them?

Freelancer1495 wrote:Title says it all, I can't for the life of me figure out how to beat lance fleets. No matter if i try to stay at range or brawl im just getting wreck as SM. I try focusing their weapons but to no avail. Should I just ram them?

Atm there is no solid strategy for Space marines to counter lance fleets. Id ask again once enough people have maxed out fleets. I think the best case will be shield tanks and being in their face the whole time taking out priority targets. Space marines have the speed to keep up with chaos. Just need the right build to stay alive long enough. You definantly want to have as many ships as possible as a space marine. In a 700 point game I think Space marines can have 4 ships. Try 2-3 cruisers with 1 or 2 vanguards with bombardment cannons or lances and focus fire. Havnt played SM long enough but I know for a fact that the battle barge is not the ship you want to take atm not untill they fixed AP.

Lances would be useful additions on the space marine ships if they had the 50% lance damage to shields upgrade. Funny enough space marine lances almost function as in the table top because of the lack of that upgrade. I realized that if they remove the 50% damage to shield upgrade and the ap upgrade for the macros then we would have a game closer to the TT and ships with mixed weapons like the lunar wouldn't be useless.

Sindrey wrote:Lances would be useful additions on the space marine ships if they had the 50% lance damage to shields upgrade. Funny enough space marine lances almost function as in the table top because of the lack of that upgrade. I realized that if they remove the 50% damage to shield upgrade and the ap upgrade for the macros then we would have a game closer to the TT and ships with mixed weapons like the lunar wouldn't be useless.

Not a half bad idea, although perhaps avoid bringing up removing AP rounds. Every space marine thread so far has had at least one argument over what to do with them

Imperator5 wrote:If they got no carriers or Fighter ability, you can try to use boarding torpedoes and assault Thunderhawks.

If they got a single carrier to act as a fighter screen, you are boned and better run and warp out ASAP.

not so extreme.. If you do have Ap yourself hide in a cloud until they get close. IFyou can make the fight at point blank you will be at roughly same state. From that point is all about micro maneuvering on arcs of fire.

Imperator5 wrote:If they got no carriers or Fighter ability, you can try to use boarding torpedoes and assault Thunderhawks.

If they got a single carrier to act as a fighter screen, you are boned and better run and warp out ASAP.

not so extreme.. If you do have Ap yourself hide in a cloud until they get close. IFyou can make the fight at point blank you will be at roughly same state. From that point is all about micro maneuvering on arcs of fire.

Spam boarding torpedoes/thunderhawks all on one target, overwhelm any fighter screen through pure numbers of ordinance and hope you can keep doing this until they die. If they break vision, you're boned. Just capitulate. Better to wait 1 turn for lost in the warp than 2 turns for a fleet wipe.

I've found that one of the best ways to counter any chaos fleet is to target their engines. Once you get one ship that can't run away you kill it with extreme prejudice. Then you repeat with the next ship. Micro Warp Jump on a Mk1 Battlebarge with Improved Augur Array is a great help with this but you can get similar results by using a strike cruiser or vanguard with Efficient Plasma Thrusters.